Exploiting the Dao Culture’s Symbolic Mascot “Long Khuyen” for Tourism Development

Abstract

The issue of identifying cultural symbols has an important meaning in determining the cultural characteristics of a country and an ethnic community. Based on research materials of other scholars and field materials of the authors in the Dao community, the iconic mascot Long khuyen (Dragon Dog) is symbolically imbued in the ethnic Dao culture. Long khuyen is associated with the concept of ethnic Dao origin and is sanctified in the people’s religious life as well as manifested in many different cultural aspects. Through clarifying some manifestations of this mascot in Dao culture, the article proposes the utilisation of the Long khuyen in designing some products for current tourism development in the Dao community